John Baptist, doctor of medicine, first professor of anatomy in the university of Padua, and member of several of the most eminent societies of learned men in Europe, was born in the year 1682, at Forli, a town in the district of La Romagna in Italy. His

(A) This last disposition, we are told, he could not restrain even at his execution. The day being come, he ascended the scaffold, which seemed so weak that it was ready to fall; whereupon, "I pray (said he) see me safe up, and for my coming down let me shift for myself." His prayers being ended, he turned to the executioner, and with a cheerful countenance said, "Pluck up thy spirits, man, and be not afraid to do thy office; my neck is very short, take heed therefore thou strike not awry for saving thy honesty." Then laying his head upon the block, he bade him stay until he had put aside his beard, saying, "That had never committed any treason." of his physician, and that of professor royal of botany, with a pension of £200 per annum. The Praeudium Botanicum, which he published in 1669, procured him so much reputation, that the university of Oxford invited him to the professorship of botany in 1669; which he accepted, and acquitted himself in it with great ability. He died at London in 1683, aged 63.

He published a second and third part of his History of Plants, in 2 vols. folio; with this title, Plantarum Historia Oxoniensis Universalis. The first part of this excellent work has not been printed; and it is not known what has become of it.